


if these walls could talk

by cupofcait



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Dream SMP Ensemble Angst, Dream Smp, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:48:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29835570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupofcait/pseuds/cupofcait
Summary: two days after tommy’s death, tubbo discovers that ranboo is the one responsible for the explosions on the day tommy was locked in the prison with dream.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 184





	if these walls could talk

The small room tucked away in the side of the cliff was filled with engravings of names, evidence, and dead ends. Tubbo silently paced back and forth, pressing a sharp, teardrop-shaped stone-slab to his lower lip. He was using it to write on the walls, engraving his new found thoughts onto the stone ahead. The sound of the stone-on-stone was almost enough to make his ears bleed, but he didn’t have enough wood left for signs anymore. There wasn’t enough time to go punch down the tree from outside either, he had to keep investigating. He had to figure it out. 

A knock could be heard from outside the room, Tubbo turned around briefly and saw Ranboo swing his head under the low-hanging entrance. Tubbo turned back to the wall, drawing lines, circles, and arrows all along the walls. Ranboo titled his head curiously. He had been helping Tubbo investigate earlier, but the wall was bare at the time. If these walls could talk, they would never shut up. Ranboo gently sat down the grass block he unintentionally brought in, and walked closer, tracing his hands along the engravings on the walls, analyzing. 

He watched as Tubbo sluggishly continued to tarnish the walls with his thoughts, swiftly connecting arrows between them like chalk on a chalkboard. Tubbo stopped for a moment, resting his eyes for approximately five seconds, inhaling deeply, before blinking them open, starting again. He hasn’t slept since Sam told them what happened. Ranboo had a feeling he knew this was how he would process it. After watching Tubbo’s presidency, Ranboo noticed how he handled emotions. He overworks himself until there’s nothing left. He buries them, as far down as they can go, and tries to make sense of the situation, rather than reacting with his heart. Ranboo knew that this was his way of grieving, in the same way that he had his. Tubbo had to be alone with his forever working mind. He always wore his head on his sleeve, and that was clear to everyone he met.  


But that didn’t stop Ranboo from worrying. He didn’t know the last time he slept, or ate. For all he knows, Tubbo’s been in this small room in the cliff side for the past 48 hours. He gently approached Tubbo, asking him questions to exercise his mind, to keep him from being consumed by himself: “So, How is Phil a suspect again?”, “You found an irregular snow pattern on the roof?”, and so on. But eventually, Tubbo stopped answering, too focused on the task at hand. He paused to close his eyes, for again, approximately five seconds. He was exhausted, in all aspects. “Hey, hey,” Ranboo whispered gently, “Let me take over. You go get some sleep. I’ll continue to brainstorm.” Ranboo’s words echoed through the small room, along with the teeth-grinding sound of the stone sliding against the wall. Silence followed. “Tubbo, we can work on this tomor-“, he was immediately cut off, taken aback when Tubbo responded with, “Not now, Ranboo.” Despite the aggressive response, Ranboo persisted. He was determined to take care of Tubbo, just like he promised. “Do you want me to go get our beds? We can just stay here overnight!” Again, silence.  


Tubbo slid the stone piece against the wall, connecting points together by lines. Each with an arrow-head at the end, pointing to a blank space in the center of the wall. Tubbo hesitantly began to engrave the final piece of evidence in that spot. He stood back, examining the evidence as a whole. The sound of his writing tool echoed as it hit the floor beneath him. A defeated, “Surely not..” escaped his lips. Ranboo peered over Tubbo’s head, and read the final suspect that was connected to every piece of evidence up there, ‘Ranboo.’ 

The silence filled the air quickly, almost suffocating the room. He panicked, taking a few steps back. Both pairs of eyes laid upon the stone wall ahead, where the name ‘Ranboo’ was spelt out. Tubbo finally broke the silence, “Tell me it wasn’t you, Tell me that I made a mistake somewhere.” He paused, “Tell me this wasn’t all for nothing.”  
Ranboo breathed heavily. It couldn’t have been him. He doesn’t remember doing anything like that. “Why would I ever do that?” His voice quivered, not knowing the proper way to respond to these accusations. 

“I don’t know, Ranboo. Why don’t you tell me? Because every single piece of evidence is pointing directly at you.” He inhaled sharply before he continued, “Is this some kind of sick joke?” Tubbo’s voice filled the room, proper anger. This was a side of Tubbo that he’s never seen before.  
“Tubbo, this wasn’t me. I wasn’t even online when it happened.” He gently responded, knowing that raising his voice to Tubbo in a time like this wasn’t the right thing to do. Tubbo turned around, his eyes shooting up to Ranboos. His head snapped back to the wall momentarily pointing at the list of members online at the time, and right next to Tommy's name, was Ranboo.

“I’ve calculated every step, every movement, every suspect, and you watched. You watched me engrave endless names and evidence into these walls. You watched knowing that you were lying to me?” He inhaled sharply, feeling the painful stab in the heart that is betrayal, “I trusted you!” His words stung in the same way that the rain stings Ranboo’s skin. He shook his head, this wasn’t him, he didn’t do this. Why would he help Dream? He’s tormented him for months, that little voice constantly in his head like a broken jukebox, but he couldn’t tell Tubbo that.

Ranboo had no time to ponder on the thought before Tubbo shouted once more, “You were the only thing I had left on this server, and you betrayed me. You took away my best friend.” His anger began to melt down to sadness. 

“There has to be a mistake! Check again!” Ranboo blurted out, walking from his stance near the doorway, reading over the evidence on the walls. Tubbo stood back, knowing that everything was correct, and everything was precisely calculated. He watched as Ranboo reached for any kind of defense against him. Betrayal was a feeling Tubbo knew all too well.

His hands frantically traced the writings on the walls, mumbling the words to himself as he read. Following one last arrow, it pointed to his name, yet again. But there was nothing in his book that said any of this, there was no insight into this at all. But it was all factual information. Tubbo stood arms crossed, watching as Ranboo searched his memory book. He gained only papercuts from looking, no new information. 

Tubbo let his arms fall to his sides, “Look, every piece of evidence points to you. And I’ve been denying it for hours on end, because I thought, there’s no way it can be Ranboo! Not the Ranboo I know.” He looked up, his eyes were dark, and few tears silently fell as he spoke, “You just lied to me now about being online at the time!” Ranboo shook his head, continuing to desperately look for an answer to this, because it wasn’t him, and he knows that. He blocked out Tubbo’s words, focusing on finding a solution for him. He didn’t do this, he has no motive to do this. Yet all the evidence points to him. 

“Listen to me!” He shouted, grabbing Ranboo’s forearms. “Tommy is dead”, His voice broke, this is the first time he’s said those words since the incident happened. “You’re the reason he’s dead.” In that moment, Tubbo was no longer just the head, he had become the heart as well. Because without Tommy, he had to be both.  
“I should put you on trial, put you in that cell with that green bastard myself, and let you feel the pain Tommy went through.” He paused, collecting himself, “But you and I both know I can’t do that.” Ranboo stood quietly. Tubbo had grown quite fond of Ranboo, and despite knowing that he was the reason Tommy died, he couldn’t bring himself to lose him too. He had suffered too much loss already. “I can’t lose you both”, his voice shattered. Ranboo watched as Tubbo broke, wearing his heart on his sleeve, in the same way Tommy did. This was a new side of Tubbo, and he had never seen him feel things so deeply. He couldn’t speak, he pushed for words to come out of his throat, to comfort Tubbo, to say anything, but not a word came out. He watched as Tubbo sobbed for a moment, proceeding to pick himself back up, as if remembering what he had to do, which was what was morally correct. 

“Ranboo, stay away from Snowchester, and stay away from me.” As much as it pained Tubbo to say this, he had to. He had no idea what had happened to the person he met, the friend he was ready to start a life with. Worst of all, he had no idea if he was his next target. “Until you can figure out what’s wrong with your memory, and why you did this: You have to stay away from the people I care about.”  
He stood in disbelief, watching as Tubbo said goodbye to him. For something he couldn’t even remember doing. The second-guessing began, the internal war of ‘Who Is In Control’. Maybe he did do this, and he didn’t write it down in the book. Maybe this was another case of what happened to the Community House. Maybe he’s being framed again, or maybe his own memory blocked out what he did. Ranboo knew he had to listen to Tubbo, because if this was his fault, he didn’t want to end up hurting him. Tubbo is the last person he would ever want to hurt.

“Leave, Ranboo.” Tubbo whispered, pointing towards the moonlight glistening through the storm, and through the exit of the room. The pain in his voice was heartbreaking. Ranboo nodded, it hurt to leave him, but he knew that this would protect Tubbo, it would protect him from himself. He knew that if he really wasn’t in control, he would’ve eventually hurt Tubbo, too. 

“Goodbye, Tubbo.” As he went to pick up his grass block, he moved it closer to Tubbo instead. A small forced smile laid upon his face as tears began to layer deeper into the already sunken in scars on his cheeks that he had from crying. “Take care of yourself for me, alright?” He pulled Tubbo into a tight embrace, despite it being an unwanted hug on his end, it was what Ranboo needed to allow himself to walk away. Ducking under the low hanging entrance, Ranboo walked out into the pouring rain, allowing it to seep into his skin. At that moment, he didn’t care how bad the rain burned his skin. He continued to walk until the cliff was no longer in sight. 

He left Tubbo, and worst of all, he hurt Tubbo.


End file.
